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Marinus

Fall 2018 _ Prof. Andrés Jaque
(Partner: Aishwarya Keshav)


Existing Plan of Australia’s Arlington Reef.


More than 50,000 sharks are killed each year. As apex predators, sharks indirectly maintain the wellbeing of the ocean.  This project proposes the  establishment of Marinus, a council comprised of a collection of NGOs that have been acting independently to tackle the environmental issues that threaten the health of the reef ecosystem. Marinus’ amphibious creatures are programmed to ultimately protect sharks while minimizing damage of the ecosystem. They are a culmination of existing technologies that were once separate, now mobilized by one system with a mission to save the Reef from the 2100 projected habitat destruction.

Through Marinus, illuminated traffic lanes are demarcated, creating a path for vessels to navigate, while fishing is activated and deactivated seasonally in alignment with the fishing calendar. By the end of the season, the zoning changes to allow for the populations to replenish and switches another zone on for fishing. Each of the ten intelligent, autonomous ocean nomads exhibit their own individual character and quirks that make them more a companion of the oceanic system. They function both individually and collaboratively, acting alone on some missions while sharing certain goals for others.

The nomads record anthropocentric data and reveal their findings to the public, giving a voice to the ocean and operating in full transparency within the Great Barrier Reef. Over time, they accumulate an intelligence that allows them to preemptively address threats that may arise, be it temperature increase, acidification, sedimentation, invasive reef species and may respond to these issues, or divert traffic accordingly.



Sectional Axonomic View of Proposed Zoning System in Australian Waters. 


Proposed Dynamic Zoning Plan of Australian Waters.

Autonomous Nomads.